Trash Panda Cleans Up Nice: Baking Soda Shampoo and Vinegar Hair Rinse

I feel like posting about this is almost cheating, because it's so simple. But I hadn't heard of it til I read about it in "The Bust DIY Guide to Life" and "Make Your Place: Affordable Sustainable Nesting Skills", so Trash Panda's going to spread the good news.

Bust DIY & Make Your Place's Super Simple Shampoo and Rinse

1. Scrub your scalp and roots with a little baking soda
2. Rinse right away with hot water
3. Rinse with a little vinegar - I recommend either using a little spray bottle to spray a bit on, or use it diluted at least 1:1 with water and pour it on with a cup or something
4. Rinse with hot water again

That's it.

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Review

Hair cleaning power: Felt only sort of clean in shower, but hair & scalp felt nice and clean when dry
Recommended for: Straighter hair types and more oily scalps
Ease of making: Beyond easy - just take it out of the box/bottle really
Cost: about $0.05/ounce for both baking soda & vinegar

This sounded questionable at best for hair health, so I tried it out. I just grabbed a few pinches of baking powder, which turned into a watery baking powder paste in my hand in the shower, then rubbed it on my scalp and roots. After rinsing real good in hot water so I didn't turn into an accidental baking soda volcano, I rinsed my hair some squirts of apple cider vinegar I put into an old hand soap pump. Then I rinsed again until I didn't smell like a pickle. It worked just like Bust and Make Your Place said it would - baking soda scrub got rid of the extra dirt, dead skin and oils, and the vinegar rinsed away the last of the baking soda residue. And while I didn't get that sodium laurel sulfate stripped-away-all-the-oils squeaky clean feeling in the shower, my hair looked and felt clean and shiny afterward. 

IMPORTANT NOTES: I know baking soda & vinegar rinse works well for short, straight, fine hair and a normal to oily scalp, cuz that's what I got. After doing some reading on natural hair care sites, it seems like this is less of a good idea the drier and curlier/kinkier your hair is.  If you have dry or very curly/kinky hair, my brief survey indicates you should try out the baking soda scrub/ vinegar rinse as an occasional sub in for a clarifying shampoo or maybe try it out once every other week to replace shampoo entirely.

Baking soda is fairly abrasive and drying, so I wouldn't use it everyday no matter what hair/scalp type you have. With my dandelion fluffy oily little head, I use it maybe every other day. I highly recommend rinsing with diluted vinegar or maybe lemon juice whenever you use baking soda as a shampoo to counteract the baking soda's basic pH.

My friend and colleague Pizza Rat mentioned she used to use the baking soda and vinegar regimen in college. She said it worked pretty well when she had short hair, but was kind of a pain when she grew her hair out, so she went back to shampoo and conditioner. Pizza Rat also noted that baking soda was only so-so cleaning her hair when it was really, really dirty (like with actual dirt).

Variations

To be fancy and add some herbs that are good for hair health or just smell nice, you can either infuse your vinegar with said herbs, or make a diluted vinegar/ herb tea mix like the one below.

Make Your Place's Herbal Vinegar Rinse and Conditioner

Ingredients:

• 4 cups very hot water
• 3/4 cups vinegar (apple cider vinegar is best)
• 2 tbsp each dried nettles, dried rosemary, and dried chamomile flowers (feel free to sub in other nice hair herbs or remove some of the above if you can't get ahold of them)

Steps: 

• Put herbs in some cheesecloth or a big tea ball and combine with other ingredients in a jar or non-reactive pot or bowl (i.e. plastic, ceramic or enameled)
• Cover and let steep overnight
• In the morning, remove the herbs
• To use, work up to a cup of the vinegar rinse in to your hair after you shampoo, and rinse well

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References: 

The Bust DIY Guide to Life: Making Your Way Through Every Day by Laurie Henzel & Debbie Stoller. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2011.

Make Your Place: Affordable, Sustainable Nesting Skills by Raleigh Briggs. Microcosm Publishing, 2018.

Photo credit: Raccoon in water by Neale Bacon, October 25, 2008. Cropping and graphic design by Trash Panda DIY.